Jason Aldean's success 'Train' picks up steam

Sunday

May 12, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Just five albums into his career, Jason Aldean has punched his ticket into one of the most exclusive clubs in country music.

By ALAN SCULLEYFor the Herald-Journal

Just five albums into his career, Jason Aldean has punched his ticket into one of the most exclusive clubs in country music.He has joined Kenny Chesney and Taylor Swift as solo artists with the drawing power to headline stadium shows — as evidenced by sold-out shows at Boston's Fenway Park and Chicago's Wrigley Field.He's selling lots of music, too. His 2010 album, “My Kinda Party,” cemented Aldean's status as a premier hit maker. Having sold nearly 3 million copies and spawned five No. 1 singles (including “Don't You Wanna Stay,” a duet with Kelly Clarkson), “My Kinda Party” was a blockbuster.Such success, though, comes with a price — namely the reality that his follow-up album, the recently released “Night Train,” would be judged by the standard set with “My Kinda Party.”Aldean confronted the expectations for “Night Train” by taking a business-as-usual approach to the project.“I remember when we made the ‘My Kinda Party' album, we had those songs that we felt like were cool,” Aldean recalled in a late-March interview. “We just went in and cut what we felt like was a great record, which is kind of the attitude we've had every time we've gone in the studio.”Obviously, success has become a familiar feeling for the 36-year-old singer from Macon, Ga. But he knows about struggle and disappointment as well.He began his career playing gigs around Georgia, Alabama and Florida, and it was at a show in Atlanta in 1998 where he was “discovered.” Michael Knox, a representative with Warner Chappell Music Publishing, went to that concert and immediately offered Aldean a songwriting deal with the firm.Soon after going to work with Warner Chappell, Aldean landed a record deal with Capitol Records. Unfortunately, that deal fell apart before he could release an album.By 2003, his dreams of a music career were fading. Aldean and his wife, Jessica (who have just announced they are divorcing), had just had their first child, and he knew he would soon have to move back to Macon to find a job that would support his family.

In signing to Broken Bow, Aldean has enjoyed not only success, but more freedom to take musical risks than he might have had on a major label.“Obviously, as an artist you don't want to just settle into one thing and just hammer it away, and you never really get outside of that box,” Aldean said. “I mean, I want to constantly try new things and push the limits a little bit. But at the same time, I think it's important not to ever really get away from what got you to that point.“So songs like ‘Take a Little Ride,' you listen to that song and to me, it's obvious. That's a right-down-the-middle radio hit. But then it's things like ‘Black Tears,' and some of those songs are the ones that kind of branch off in another direction, are kind of your risk-takers.”“Black Tears” is especially edgy lyrically. It's a ballad about a stripper and the damage that her work does to her self-image and her life — not exactly mainstream stuff in a genre that encourages themes of faith, family and patriotism.Another song that's a mild gamble is Aldean's current top-15-and-rising single, “1994.” It features rap-ish spoken word lyrics and name-checks country artist Joe Diffie, who enjoyed a run of hit singles in the '90s, as part of an ode to that decade. It's very catchy, but unconventional. Aldean, though, knows from experience that sometimes the smart money rides on not playing things safe.“ ‘Dirt Road Anthem' was a prime example of that,” he said, referencing a rap-inflected chart-topper from “My Kinda Party.” “Sometimes when you take those risks, when they pay off, they pay off in a huge way.”“Night Train” looks to at least approach the popularity of “My Kinda Party.” It sold its 1 millionth copy just four weeks after its release and has already extended Aldean's string of No. 1 singles to seven, after its first two singles, “Take a Little Ride” and “The Only Way I Know,” claimed the top spot on the Billboard magazine country singles chart.

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